Extra Traffic

I've noticed some extra traffic to my site lately, which is really cool. Most are from google searches, but I'm sure they are searches intended to find my page. At least I like to think they are specifically to search for my page. But a search for "micro poker grinding blog" and "nikita poker" proves I'm not being too egotistical. I'm so glad you guys are searching for and finding me.

The funny thing is, the traffic has seemed to increase the most this month and I think the is the month I've posted the least. I've just haven't had much to say. I've been grinding the $25NL tables but not as much. I've played a few SNGs, but nothing substantial. I think I've maybe averaged an hour of poker a night.

I guess I will update my poker exploits a little for everyone. It's not that exciting though. My grinding is barely break even right now. I'm sure I've got a few leaks that are causing issues. I've posted a hand or two at TalkingPoker.com. I need to post more. I've been running decent at the SNGs. For the month of April, I have an ROI of 25% with a finish in the money of 43%. I doubt this is sustainable, but I'm willing to ride the rush.

If you have been searching for my site, feel free to comment. I'd like to know who you are. Any suggestions are welcome too.

WWdN Final Table!

Rob and I decided to play a tournament together tonight and since it was Tuesday, we joined the Wil Wheaton dot Net invitational. I've played a few of them, but have usually been quite unsuccessful at them. Although I did knock out Wil once.

Well, tonight was the night. I finally made it to the final table. Made it to the money! Woo hoo! Ended up 6/51 for a cool $33.15 payout. I would have done better but AK is no good against AJ.

Poker Graph

Here is a graph of my month of March. A little up and down, but overall up for the month. It's amusing to see the huge dips at the end of the month. I started out playing $10NL and then switched to $25NL. I'm fumbling around at the limit a bit, but I think I can beat it overall.

Royal Flush

Second one ever.

PokerStars Cash game, $0.10/$0.25 No Limit, 6 players
Hand History Converted at http://www.talkingpoker.com/hh

SB: $28.40
BB: $28.55
HERO (UTG): $23.30
MP: $5.50
CO: $15.45
Button: $37.10

SB posts Small Blind $0.1
BB posts Big Blind $0.25

Pre-flop: Ad Jd ($0.35)
HERO raises to $0.95
MP folds
CO calls $1
Button calls $1
SB folds
BB folds

Flop: Qd As Td ($3.3)
HERO bets $2.2
CO calls $2.2
Button folds

Turn: Qd As Td Kd ($7.7)
HERO checks
CO checks

River: Qd As Td Kd 4c ($7.7)
HERO bets $4.7
CO calls $4.7

CO shows Ks Js
HERO wins $16.50 with a Royal Flush

Neteller News

Well, this article was just posted on the Talking Poker forum. It looks like Canadians will no longer be able to use Neteller to fund gambling sites.

It sucks a little. I had pulled all my money out of Neteller (because of the US issue), but I kept them around as they were the easiest way to move money from site to site. I doubt I will play anywhere but Pokerstars now, but the hard part is how do I withdraw my money and put it back into my bank account? Ok, maybe this sucks more than a little.

Good Cash Game

Rob and I hosted our monthly home game today. Unfortunately, I was scheduled to work until midnight, so I wasn't in for the tournament, but the cash game was still running so I joined that.

I was quite surprised by the play this month. Typically, it's just call, call, call, min bet, min bet, min bet and then showdown. This time, there were quite a few hefty raises and actual laydowns. I decided to donk it up a bit since it was just a $10NL game, and was calling with any suited cards or any paint. I got all in with a weak hand and knew I was behind and ended up with only 40 cents left. I then push with K2s and catch a flush and triple my stack. I get short again, and go all in dark for 60 cents total. I didn't look at my cards until the river when all of us still in showed. Surprisingly, I had ended up with a pretty decent hand--I had A5o and had caught two pair. I built my stack up and get all in on the flop with a pair of Kings, Jack kicker. Brett calls me with a 7 high flush draw--he too was donking it up and he usually does for the cash games. He doesn't complete his flush but catches his two pair instead--sevens and threes. Yuck. Anyway, the game doesn't last too much longer and I end up only down about a buck. It seems Jeff made the best of the cash game and he walked away with over $20.

I'm out.

Out in 384th. My AA was no good against 47s--he was of course defending his blind and hit. Bah! Well, I paid a total of $15.30 for the tournament and 384 was good for $27.58. So a small profit.

Sick Hand

Ok, I had to post this. It's from the tournament.

PokerStars Tournament game, buy-in $3.00+0.30, Level XIII $1000/$2000 No Limit, 9 players
Hand History Converted at http://www.talkingpoker.com/hh

SB: T$17930
BB: T$21115
UTG: T$60514
UTG+1: T$25518
MP1: T$37745
MP2: T$91635
HERO (MP3): T$73945
CO: T$39936
Button: T$38870

Players post T$100 ante
SB posts Small Blind T$1000
BB posts Big Blind T$2000

Pre-flop: 5c 3d (T$3900)
UTG raises to T$6000
UTG+1 calls T$6000
MP1 folds
MP2 folds
HERO folds
CO raises to T$39836
Button folds
SB folds
BB folds
UTG raises to T$60414
UTG+1 calls T$19418

Flop: Qd Kh Js ($129568)

Turn: Qd Kh Js Qh (T$129568)

River: Qd Kh Js Qh Jd (T$129568)

CO shows Kc Ac
UTG shows Ad Jh
UTG+1 shows Qc As
UTG wins T$28836 with a full house Jacks full of Queens
UTG+1 wins T$80154 with a full house Queens full of Jacks

$3.30R $10000 Guaranteed

First attempt at a serious rebuy. I just made it to the money at the $10k guaranteed at Pokerstars. I'm sitting in 47/588 right now. I will update once the tourney is done on how I did, I just don't want to jinx it.

Bonus Cleared

I actually cleared the bonus at UB. It was long and tedious and the play at $2 and $10NL is awful, but that helped me make a few bucks along the way as well. I've withdrawn all my money from there and will be putting it on Stars, I don't plan on doing much more bonus whoring, I have a decent enough 'roll now and grinding has been getting to me the last little bit. Maybe I should take some more money out of my account and find a few more Wii games to buy and focus on playing those instead.

LOL at Paranoia

I recently stumbled on this article about online poker being rigged. Wow. I have no background on how legitimate this site is for "learning" poker, but seriously how paranoid can you get?

Trip Report

So last night Rob, Adam and Jason and I headed towards Strathroy for a NL hold'em tournament that Adam heard about. After about a 40 minute drive it was clear it wasn't quite in strathroy and to be honest, I have no idea where we were. It was definitely an out of the way town especially since I had never heard of the place before.

We took two cars, Rob and I followed Adam and Jason. Jason was the cellphone contact as Adam was the only one who knew how to get there. And when we pulling into the drive of what was probably a farm, I said to Rob, "You know, if Adam is actually a serial killer, this is the perfect place to lead us to." We park and Adam leads us into a barn/shed. It probably at one point held a lot of farm equipment but was mostly cleared out except for the tables and chairs for all who were going to play.

The buy-in is $26+4 (we think). From what I gathered from Adam, it was a "charity" tournament for the local Optimus Club. It really wasn't clearly advertised what the rake was, so we have no idea how much the real buy-in was. In fact, it wasn't a very organized tournament; it was more like a very big home game.

The blind structure and chip counts kinda sucked. They started the blinds and 1/2 and then doubled them every 20 minutes(for the most part, there were a couple stages where it wasn't a double). And we only started with 150 chips. Definitely not a structure I'm used to. There were 30 players and 4 ended up paying out. First was a cool $312.

It was slow for the game to start. Everyone seemed to know everyone else--if they weren't related--so there was a lot of chatting and catching up on news before everyone was ready to play. When we did get going, Jason and I ended up at the same table and Rob and Adam were at two others. The best way to describe the play is "LOL, donkaments!"

It was bad; it was worse than the play at our home game. Everyone at the table would limp in. Although, if there were raises, it still didn't thin the field, it just sweetened the pot. The betting typically consisted of min bets, ocassionally someone would bet 2XBB but that was rare. And if they had an Ace in their hand, that was good enough to call down to the river. So, my strategy was to wait. I didn't want to get into to many pots with so many players. It was tough though, because of the blinds, waiting also meant worrying about being short stacked. As well, if I was in the BB or SB and I hit TP or better, I was staying until the river as my hand was likely good.

I really didn't have a choice about waiting for hands, though. I was not getting very good cards either way. So I folded and folded and folded. Blinds are about 5/10 and I look down and see TT. My stack is so-so, so I decide to make a hefty raise and re-evaluate on the flop. I get two callers and the flop is 34Q rainbow. The only thing I am afraid of is a queen so I push and hope neither player has one. One calls and one folds. When she flips her cards I'm happy to see A7o. The turn is a 5 and I'm now dreading a 6 on the river, but I hold up when it's just a seven. I scoop the pot and I'm good for a couple more blind increases.

My friend, Jason, is eliminated shortly after that and as he is busted he says to me "I hate the Mooney tables." Mooney is the worst player at our home game. I nod to Jason in agreement as I'm a little frustrated as well.

Part way into the 10/20 blind stage, I looked down to see KK in the BB. Time to make a move, I need to get more chips if I want to get to the final table let alone to the money. The whole table limps in, so I push. Everyone folds except for one caller. He flips A6o. I laugh and just feel an ace coming since I do have the kiss of death. Amazingly, my hand holds up.

Later, I double up a short stack when my TT ran into her QQ. Then next hand I call another all in with AKo and he flips QQ again. I'm beginning to hate the ladies. I end up lucking out and the two of us split the pot when the board made a straight.

During these hands, Adam goes broke and then later I see Rob come by my table so he's out as well. It's up to me now to represent.

Finally, the "tournament director" yells out that we will be going on break and after break we will be at final table! Blinds will also start at 20/40. I count my chips and I'm hurting. I have just under 200 chips. Once the game was one again, I check the chip stacks at the table there are 8 of us and only one other player is as desperate as I am. I was definitely going to have to push with any type of good holdings.

First hand is dealt and I'm UTG. I check and see QQ. Perfect, I'm sure to get a caller with this hand, so I push my stack in. Nope, everyone folds. Okay, the ladies really are a crappy hand for me tonight. In the BB I check and see 94 both spades. Sigh, with 60 chips coming off my stack this and the next hand, I'm not likely the looks of how things are going. So before the flop is dealt, everyone but one person limps in. As the cards are dealt, I see spade, then spade and finally a third spade. I flopped a flush. Not a great one, but it's all I have, when it's my turn to act, I push my stack to the center again. I get one caller again and when he flips his cards, my tournament is over. His K3 of spades, makes his King high flush better than mine. My only hope is a runner runner for a straight flush. It doesn't happen and I end out in 8th place.

I head over to where Rob and Jason are and the three of us wait until Adam finishes playing a Sit and Go that had started up. His game ends and he tells us he finished in first, so at least one of us were able to leave with a small profit.

iPod Freeroll

Ash posted this on his blog and I'm always up for a good freeroll so I registered too.

Poker Sites

Home Game Report

It was poker night again last night. We had a couple new players players, but still only about 13 in total. I ended up at the donkey table; no one was raising pre flop and post flop the bets were typically just min bets.

I was having difficulties with my hands holding up. First, I slow play a set to have Jen catch her better set on the river to win a lot of my chips. Then I hit TPGK and bet hard to have Julie (new player to both our home game and to the game of poker), call me all the way to the river. She was calling with A high, but unlucky me the Ace did come. The funny thing, she would call my big bets with A high, but earlier, she had two pair and wanted to fold it when Scott was betting hard into her.

I was finally crippled at the final table when I called Mooney's allin with A4s on a 567 rainbow flop. Mooney is perfectly willing to push with air so I was 90% confident my A high had him beat and I knew if I called other similar hands would fold. When I called Mooney turnd over 79o. I did catch an A on the turn, but another 7 came on the river. I'm left with 25 chips when the blinds are either 75/150 or 100/200 (I'm not sure exactly which). I'm allin the next hand and with lots of betting and calling I know I'm toast. And it's confirmed when Jessie turns over quads.

Jason came in third, Adam came in second. And a surprising first was Jen. She was definitely excited. She knows how to play poker, but she also knows she's not very good at it.

Also, Adam invited Rob and I to a tournament in Strathroy. It's a $30 buy-in and he says usually about 80 people buy-in, so we agreed to go. I've never played in a real live tournament, so this should be fun. I believe it's next week, so I will have to write up a trip report.

Computers Suck

So my computer has been acting a little weird lately. And the other day I got a BSOD (blue screen of death), when I turned my computer back on, all my default settings on firefox had returned and all my saved passwords were gone. As well, every time I opened a program, I'd get a little pop up that a file was corrupt and to run chdsk. I've reloaded my setting for firefox, but everytime I shut down my computer, they disappear again. Rob thinks my hard drive is going so that sucks huge. We weren't really looking to get a new computer anytime soon, but mine might not last much longer. Stupid computers. Plus if my computer does go, I won't be able to play poker until we get a new one.

Poker Night at Rob's

Poker night at our house is next week-end. Anyone we know and lives nearby is invited so feel free to head over to our house. You can get more info here.

I like Talking Poker Tournaments

It was a small turnout, likely since it wasn't a league game, just a spur of the moment game. I started off well. I quickly got my stack up to over 2k. I wasn't chipleader, but I was a strong second. In fact there was a point where it was just studiopet (1st) and myself who had over 1500 chips. Then, I did a good job of doubling Robbie Robb up, made a stupid call on the flop with air. I knew deep down he had hit, but because he was so short at this time, I felt like risking it. And shortly after that, I helped to double Robbr up. I tried to be cute limping UTG with TT (only 5 of us left at this time), when Robbr raised (also quite short by this time) I re-raised, essentially putting him all in. When the cards were flipped, he shows JJ--D'oh.

The shortest I ended up was around 800. I was actually THE short stack for a while. I figured I would end up bubbling. Then Robbr was nice enough to give back my chips back when he raise, and I moved all in with AQo. He called with A7o, and my hand held.

After a ton of hands Bunny and Studio are eliminated and were HU. It was quick. First hand, Robbr folds his SB to me. Second hand, well here it is below:

POKERSTARS GAME #8397933803: TOURNAMENT #42508903, $10+$1 HOLD'EM NO LIMIT - LEVEL IV (50/100) - 2007/02/11 - 22:28:55 (ET)
Table '42508903 1' 9-max Seat #9 is the button
Seat 8: Robbr25 (4500 in chips)
Seat 9: N1kita (4500 in chips)
N1kita: posts small blind 50
Robbr25: posts big blind 100
*** HOLE CARDS ***
Dealt to N1kita [6c Ah]
N1kita: raises 200 to 300
Robbr25: raises 600 to 900
N1kita: calls 600
*** FLOP *** [Ac 6d 6h]
Robbr25: bets 900
N1kita: calls 900
*** TURN *** [Ac 6d 6h] [4s]
Robbr25: checks
N1kita: checks
*** RIVER *** [Ac 6d 6h 4s] [7c]
Robbr25: checks
N1kita: bets 2700 and is all-in
Robbr25 said, "well you prob have me beat, but KOD"
Robbr25: calls 2700 and is all-in
N1kita said, "ouch"
*** SHOW DOWN ***
N1kita: shows [6c Ah] (a full house, Sixes full of Aces)
Robbr25: shows [Kd Kh] (two pair, Kings and Sixes)
N1kita said, "yeah i did"
N1kita said, "gg"
N1kita collected 9000 from pot
*** SUMMARY ***
Total pot 9000 | Rake 0
Board [Ac 6d 6h 4s 7c]
Seat 8: Robbr25 (big blind) showed [Kd Kh] and lost with two pair, Kings and Sixes
Seat 9: N1kita (button) (small blind) showed [6c Ah] and won (9000) with a full house, Sixes full of Aces


And as you can see, that was game. YEAH ME!

Oh and here is an amusing screen shot of the table as the game ended. Please note from this picture you can tell exactly how long the tournament lasted (and no, it's not because of the clock in the bottom right hand corner).

Back To Basics

Ok, so I decided not to take a break. I've been playing a little bit, but not much. A few Sngs, a couple of tourneys. I played a $25PL table at Stars the other day. Anyway, I think if I'm going to keep playing, I need to get back to the basics, back to continuously working on my game. I haven't read a poker book in a while and I think I need to start up again. I plan on re-reading Harrington on Hold'em again. There are a few I haven't read yet that I think I should. The "Book of Tells" and "Kill Phil" are on my list. I've been content to stay at the level I'm comfortable at. It's time I get serious about moving up again. I may not do well everytime I take a stab at moving up, but that's normal. And that's where bankroll management comes in. Get rolled for moving up, try it, if need be move back down, if not, build the roll and move up again. It may be a long time before I'm playing $1/$2 since I don't play very many hands, but I should eventually get there.

Break from Poker

I haven't been too interested in playing poker lately. Once in a while during January, I picked up my laptop to play. But it was more out of habit than an urge to play. I had fun, but not as much as I usually do. I'm also doing well this month, so I'm not sure why I don't feel the poker itch. It's funny, I'm almost getting the hang of the cash game grind. I think I'm starting to get better at it than tournaments.

Anyway, I've started pulling my money out of the sites I'm currently playing at. I think I'm going to take a break again, probably a month; that seemed to work last time. I'm not 100% sure I want to break though. If I don't feel like playing is a break really necessary? I will probably pull my money off either way. If I don't take a break, I think I will just go back to where I started from. Most sites won't let you withdraw change, so I have to leave some money in the accounts. I don't mind grinding out at the penny tables. And even though they are donkaments, freerolls can actually be fun.

We will see, let's see how the beginning of February goes.

League Time

So, Rob and I hosted yet another poker game at our house last night. This time we've also started a league. Anyone is welcome to join but doesn't have to be in the league to play. There were 13 of us last night and pretty much everyone committed to the league, which will run for the entire year.

It was fun as always, but that's the main point of Rob and I running these. We just like our friends coming over and hanging out. I started out really well. Of course it helped I was getting the hands. Fairly early in the tournament, I'm dealt AKs, I believe I was UTG so I raise. I get one caller, then Jeff re-raises. Jeff is a decent player so I know he doesn't have a weak holding. I opt to call, as does the person who called my initial raise. I'm looking to hit an A on the flop, big pockets are a definite concern. Fortunately, the A does come, so I bet out. One fold, then Jeff raises me. Oh oh. Well, I figure AA is a definite possibility, but two A are already out. I'm thinking he quite possibly has AK as well. The other two cards on the flop were blanks, so there are not very many hands I am behind. I decide to risk it and move all-in. Jeff hits the tank to think. He does call and he flips KK. Ouch, depending on the turn and river, I just cracked kings. My hand does hold up. Fortunately, for Jeff he had me covered, but unfortunately, not by much; he's left with 40 chips.

This is a little disappointing because we get points for the league for kills. So if I had taken Jeff out I would have recieved a quick 5 points for the league. And worse, with only 40 chips, it's very easy for anyone at the table to eliminate him. Although, Jeff caught a great hand and was able to get the whole table to call his all in to get a decent stack back. His pocket tens held up against the table. I did double him up shortly after that when my AJ rand into his AQ. By this time he was back up to something like 500 chips.

With a huge stack early in the game, I decide to see more pots than I usually do. I limp with a lot of crappy hands. That works well for me too, as Craig ended up sitting to my right. He's very loose and tends to bet with nothing. So if I hit the flop, I was content to call him down. I did this a couple times and quickly scooped the pot when he showed nothing.

I was able to eliminate two people at our table and after a few others went out, we merged to final table at 8 left. When I sat down, it was apparent I was chip leader. The final table wasn't very exciting. Most of us were fairly tight. Although, there were a few short stacks who were willing to push their entire stacks into the middle when they needed to. I was dealt the great hands when I needed again. Brett moved all in when I had 88. I knew pocket pairs were a possiblitly but so were overcards, so I quickly called. He showed AK and it didn't improve. Then later Brett moved in and I had AA, I slowly called this one. I was in either the SB or BB and the others at the table had limped into the pot. I was hoping if I showed hesitation, one of them would also call. No one else did. Brett showed KQs or QJs, I can't remember which. My hand held up again.

I never really took a hit to my stack once I built it. Rob was also at the final table and he had done well. This was nice for a change, since the last few games, the both of us have been having a hard time making it deep. Adam ended up in third place, and it was Rob and I heads up. I was willing to go all in every hand, since although additional league points would be nice, who won 1st didn't matter much since the money would both be ours in the long run. Rob was against it, so I played serious for a few hands. Then I decided meh, it's getting late and I'm tired, so anytime I got a strong head's up hand, I would push. It only took two all-ins from me before Rob was in too. It was K7 vs JT. I had JT. I didn't improve and Rob won the first league game.